Saturday, May 12, 2012

A little background, for those of you who actually give a shit about any of this.

I switched out my old profile picture for the new one, as part of a little experiment a little while back. I occasionally comment on the blog of my good friend, the Whited Sepulchre, and his Libertarian co-religionists usually point to my profile picture as proof of my supposed Socialist leanings. I'm actually the embodiment of moderation, at least in my mind.

So, whose visage would most appeal to those of the Libertarian persuasion? Why, George Mason economics professor and paid Koch brothers shill Don Bourdreaux! I performed my Photoshop magic and - no more Commie Ralph! Now I was part of the tribe. I was amazed at how the WS's commentators now found me (occasionally) a reasonable person. Others who remembered the old picture found the new one just...creepy.

A little back story on the old/classic picture. I used a different photo, a real one, on Facebook a while back and a friend (I use the term loosely) said "Lose the picture, dude - you look like Trotsky." So naturally when I needed a Blogger profile photo...

So, after several messages of late to the effect that part of my very small group of readers missed the old picture, I decided to put it to a vote. Use the poll over on the sidebar to vote for the old or new photo. I'll leave voting open for 2 weeks. As a side note to any of my Libertarian buddies, this is one election where your vote will actually count for something.

Old readers will recall this isn't the first time I've played with different photos. I generated some other Libertarian versions of my face a few years ago with equally appalling results.